Procol Harum

Beyond
the Pale

Procol Harum advertised on Danish radio

25 May 2002

Thomas Raa Olsen sends BtP the text of a message he sent to Danish National Broadcast, regarding the real importance of the date of the 2002 Eurovision Song Contest, when he was in Croydon to see Procol Harum.

This is what I mailed to the Danish National Broadcast (DR):

"Saturday evening [25 May 2002] a good deal of Denmark was sitting and listened to this year's hit

"If the winner will be remembered in 35 years I don't know, but 35 years ago Procol Harum released the greatest hit of all: A Whiter Shade of Pale.

"Because of that I was (am) in England  Croydon (south-London), where Procoholics from all over the world applauded this unique band at the exact day for the single getting no 1 at the British top ten.

"Procol Harum, which has all the years been regular guests in Denmark, is the master of symphonic rock  rock and baroque  out of the hands of Gary Brooker and Matthew Fisher at piano (and vocal) and Hammond organ.

"Procol Harum is today  beside the original two members  also the absolutely eminent Geoff Whitehorn on guitar, the young clever Matt Pegg (son of Dave Pegg, Fairport Convention) plays bass and at the most difficult position Mark Brzezicki on drums. To take over from the world's ever-best drum player  not only drummer  BJ Wilson  is an almost inhuman task, but Mark tries and he does it well.

"On a day like this the listeners must not be without this genius masterpiece. Many artists have done this in numerous versions, but today it must be either the original or yet better the (not-yet released) stereo-version on the third CD, track 11, in the "30th Anniversary Anthology" box. Only alternative to these two is the unplugged version from Gary Brooker's CD Within Our House, where the Hammond organ is replaced by a church organ, which unfortunately isn't played by Matthew Fisher. On the other hand the record fits a string quartet and choir. Both fantastic tracks which must be heard in full length.

"In Denmark there will (until now) be two opportunities to listen to Procol Harum. They will play June the 8th in Silkeborg, and the 9th in Copenhagen. If you are interested information is always available at the homepage www.procolharum.com

"Thomas Raa Olsen
Procoholic."

According to Niels-Erik Nøhr Mortensen, this mail was read out up to "On a day like this...", and then they played the original version of AWSoP on Sunday 26 May.